Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Setting up a future lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials.
Credit: ESA/Foster + Partners

The European Space Agency (ESA) has been appraising 3D printing in the Moon’s environment, making use of local resources to build a lunar outpost.

Industrial partners including architects Foster+Partners have worked with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil.

Now on display at the “Hypervital” exhibition at the International Design Biennale in Saint-Etienne, France is a 3D-printed “building block” of a future Moon base.

Lunar building block at Hypervital.
Credit: Hypervital

Tipping the scales at 1.5 tons, the building block was produced as a demonstration of 3D printing techniques using lunar soil. The design is based on a hollow closed-cell structure – combining strength with low weight.

The design approach mimics that of bird bones.

According to ESA, setting up a future lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from on-the-spot materials.

Similar experiments have been underway in the United States.

Once assembled, inflated domes are covered by robot to help occupants against space radiation and micrometeoroids.
Credit: ESA/Foster + Partners

In applying 3D printing, researchers envision multi-dome lunar base construction.

Once assembled, inflated domes could be covered with a layer of 3D-printed lunar regolith by robots to help protect the occupants against space radiation and micrometeoroids.